WHERE DEMOCRACY IS DENIED, AMERICA'S ROLE IS ALWAYS DESTABILIZATION:

In Washington, the first goal attracts the most attention because it's the most controversial. Virtually all the Republicans in Congress, and some of the Democrats, believe the nuclear deal was a mistake, and oppose reviving it. The second goal, obstructing Iranian regional influence, occasions less discussion because the presumption underlying it--that Iran is a uniquely bad actor in its neighborhood--is widely considered self-evident. 

But this rarely questioned assumption has enormous consequences for US policy in the Middle East. The Obama and Trump administrations used the specter of Iranian aggression to justify their support for the immensely destructive war that Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) have waged in Yemen. And although the Biden administration has ended support for "offensive operations" in that war and is reviewing arms sales to Saudi Arabia and the UAE, the charge of Iranian malevolence will likely justify their continuation in some form, just as it helps to justify US military aid to Israel. The claim that Iran is especially destabilizing also rationalizes many of America's non-nuclear sanctions on the country, most of which will remain even if the Biden administration rejoins the nuclear deal, and which ensure that the US does not establish normal diplomatic relations with Tehran.

These US policies, which make the Middle East more violent and less stable, are built on a false premise. Whether one examines Iran's defense spending, its support for "terrorism," or its military intervention in other countries, the country's foreign policy is no more aggressive than those of Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Turkey, or Israel, its chief regional competitors.

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